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The Australian Renewable Energy Agency has opened a AUD 250 million funding round aimed at equipment, manufacturing processes and deployment technologies, according to pv magazine. The program, known as Solar Sunshot Round 3, invites Australian and international companies with commercially mature technologies to apply.
Round 3 targets commercial-scale manufacture of solar balance of plant and deployment technologies. Eligible areas could include racking and tracking systems, robotics, advanced automation and prefabrication, among other technologies. Projects must contribute to ARENA’s ultra low-cost solar goals, including the 30-30-30 target of 30% module efficiency at an installed cost of 30 cents per watt by 2030.
ARENA General Manager Solar Dan Sturrock told pv magazine that Round 3 signals Australia is open for business with leading solar innovators seeking opportunities to develop or manufacture products at scale in the country. He described the coming decade as an exciting period to bring global innovation to Australia and demonstrate that products can be produced at scale to lower costs and improve the efficiency of building large-scale solar.
Sturrock said Round 3 extends the ambition already shown through Rounds 1 and 2. Round 2 has been running for about 12 months, with a couple of projects announced and a strong pipeline of others coming through; ARENA expects to fully allocate the AUD 150 million made available under that round.
With Round 3, Sturrock said ARENA is more ambitious, seeking to work with a broader range of companies while asking them to be equally ambitious about going larger at scale. He noted that product development for recent Round 2 recipients Built Robotics and Luminous Robotics mostly happens in the United States, creating an opportunity to bring product development expertise to Australia and consider what product is right for the local market.
Projects and products under Round 3 must also deliver value to the end user that builds or owns utility-scale solar farms. Sturrock said the projects are expected to reduce the cost of solar farms and improve product quality, with technologies expected to lower costs in the long term as construction scales to 10 GW of large-scale solar a year, compared with the current 5 GW.
Sturrock said ARENA considers value for money to the taxpayer, and applicants need to bring their own private investment. He said ARENA generally expects not to fund more than 50% of total project cost. Some projects seek a capital subsidy to reduce the cost of building a factory, while others seek a production subsidy to make a first batch cost effective and break into the market at scale.
Sturrock said ARENA hopes successful applicants will build strong businesses in Australia and then be able to export products or services to other markets in the region, including New Zealand, South East Asia or further afield. He said that despite short-term challenges in various areas, ARENA is optimistic that in 10 years the solar industry will have grown massively and that the way solar farms are built and operated in Australia will change significantly with new technologies.
Expressions of interest for Solar Sunshot Round 3 open on 2 November 2026.
ARENA announced on 13 October 2026 that Round 2 successful applicants were US-based Built Robotics and Luminous Robotics, receiving grants of AUD 14.5 million and AUD 17.8 million respectively to establish new manufacturing facilities.
Sturrock said Luminous Robotics has been around for about three years, came to ARENA early and received a small amount of funding before seeing an opportunity to scale up in Australia. He described the company as high growth with big ambitions, now looking to manufacture its LUMI robots at scale in Melbourne, and noted ARENA worked with it at a smaller scale when the robots were demonstrated at the Goorambat and Culcairn solar farms in the past year or so.
ARENA also worked with Californian start-up Built Robotics when it came to Australia to test its product. Sturrock said the company is now seeing an opportunity to scale up its piling robots in Brisbane and is building a large facility there, where it currently has only a small workshop.
Applications for the AUD 50 million Round 1B for upstream solar manufacturing feasibility studies and front end engineering and design have been extended to 12 November 2027.
Sturrock said the extension gives new entrants an opportunity to approach ARENA and allows companies to apply for second stage support. He said it is a case of watching the space, because ARENA needs to understand what success looks like in the upstream area, which is difficult and rapidly evolving based on developments in the United States and China, particularly because many of these businesses will rely on a large buyer willing to pay a non-China premium.
Rounds 1 and 2 funded projects include South Australian solar panel manufacturer Tindo Solar, Sydney-based solar technology company 5B and China-headquartered Sunman, founded by solar pioneer and University of New South Wales alumnus Dr Zhengrong Shi, which is building a 500 MW per annum solar module manufacturing facility in the Hunter Valley, New South Wales, backed by AUD 171 million in federal and state government funding.
ARENA is delivering the AUD 850 million Solar Sunshot program, launched in March 2024, to support innovation in Australia’s solar PV manufacturing industry.
Interactive table based on the Store Companies dataset for this report.
Report Scope and Analytical Framing
Concise View of Market Direction
Market Size, Growth and Scenario Framing
Commercial and Technical Scope
How the Market Splits Into Decision-Relevant Buckets
Where Demand Comes From and How It Behaves
Supply Footprint and Value Capture
Trade Flows and External Dependence
Price Formation and Revenue Logic
Who Wins and Why
How the Domestic Market Works
Commercial Entry and Scaling Priorities
Where the Best Expansion Logic Sits
Leading Players and Strategic Archetypes
How the Report Was Built
Australia's only solar panel manufacturer
Prefabricated solar array solutions
High-efficiency solar power plants
Flexible and glass-free solar products
Developing high-efficiency cell technology
Solar windows and glazing
Next-generation solar cell materials
Major distributor of solar products
Lead generation and consumer platform
Performance monitoring software
Racking and mounting solutions
Local subsidiary of global inverter company
Long-standing solar thermal company
Commercial and industrial LED lighting
LED lighting manufacturer and supplier
Australian subsidiary of global lighting group
Supplier of LED lighting solutions
Integrated solar LED lighting systems
Large-scale solar farm developer
Solar and LED lighting for businesses
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